The evolution of undergraduate economics education and the use of flipped classroom pedagogy.
The project is about the evolution of undergraduate economics teaching and the use of flipped classroom pedagogy. As the title states, the project has two parts. One is the study of the evolution of undergraduate economics, from the origin of the discipline of economics to the modern content and pedagogy. This needs an extensive study of the review of literature from the inception of the discipline of economics to modern-day economics. The other is to evaluate the flipped classroom technique on its successes, failures, and adaptations. We also plan to figure out how modern artificial intelligence (Chat GPT, Viso Suite Platform, Jupyter Notebooks, Google Cloud AI Platform, Azure Machine Learning Studio, Infosys Nia, Salesforce Einstein, etc.) and pedagogical software (blackboard, moodle, etc.) can affect the flipped classroom pedagogy. Our particular interests are twofold: from students' perspectives and from learning effectiveness.
Students' Perspective of Success Strategy – a quantitative and qualitative evaluation
The Success Strategy is a game plan to accomplish the goal of individual students in a course. It is an individual’s unique strategic plan based on aspirations and available resources. Although each student is expected to have a distinctive blueprint for what to do for a course during the entire semester, everyone has a target to reach or a goal to achieve. Simplistically defined, that can be a grade. The purpose of this assignment is to help students on several fronts. i. Each student identifies a personalized goal to achieve in the course, works toward the goal, and evaluates it at the end. ii. The student is to take ownership of her/his actions – to identify objectives, allocate resources, seek help from the instructor, and the like. iii. This strategy is expected to help students to become punctual and reduce procrastination by being reminded to be on track. iv. This task allows students to think of the course content as a holistic package rather than an approach, which would enable students to comprehend the ideas fully. So, the ultimate objective is to enhance learning that stays – an opportunity to contribute to life-long learning. As part of this assignment, students are to prepare two short reports – one at the beginning and one at the end of the semester. The first report is the student’s plan on how to achieve the goal in the course. The second is reflecting and evaluating that plan and finding out what worked and what did not. Again, each plan and evaluation are unique and specific to students. No two plans or assessments are expected to be identical. Students are to submit both reports to receive credits. These reports are brief and do not require much time. 3. Description of the tasks the students will be completing for you The Riipen student will compile the gathered data from pre- and post-reports of individual students, enter it on a spreadsheet, and examine it for potential quantitative and qualitative statistical analysis. 4.
Agricultural Productivity and Nutritional Security in Bangladesh Phase #2
Bangladesh is a highly densely populated country with an average population density of over 1200 people per square kilometer. Agriculture remains the primary source of nutrition to the country’s population of 166 million, although the economic contribution of agriculture in terms of its share of GDP continues to decline. The agriculture sector has progressed over the past half a century since its independence in 1971, especially in increasing productivity in nearly all subsectors – crops, livestock, poultry, fish, and others. However, the increasingly shrinking availability of productive land, fragmented landholding, and the lack of ample capital assets pose serious challenges to coping with the expanded population and offering sufficient nutrition. In this paper, we would like to examine the trajectory of Bangladesh's agricultural and food production system over the past couple of decades and what role it has been playing in offering nutritional security to the people of Bangladesh. We will also explore the contribution international trade plays in providing nutritional security for the people. The specific objectives are: 1. Identify per capita production of different food crops and examine the trend. 2. Identify the variability among different food products and their trend 3. The per capita availability of major nutrition: protein, carbohydrate, fat, etc. 4. Trends of other health and nutrition variables [i.e., infant mortality, life expectancy, live birth weight, women anemic, etc.,] 5. Relate agricultural productivity with nutritional security. 6. Recommend policy options The raw secondary data for this project has already been downloaded from different sites, especially FAOSTAT, the World Bank Databank, and the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics. Some literature searches and downloading literature have also been done. This was the first phase of the project.
Agricultural Productivity and Nutritional Security in Bangladesh
Bangladesh is a highly densely populated country with an average population density of over 1200 people per square kilometer. Agriculture remains the primary source of nutrition to the country’s population of 166 million, although the economic contribution of agriculture in terms of its share of GDP continues to decline. The agriculture sector has progressed over the past half a century since its independence in 1971, especially in increasing productivity in nearly all subsectors – crops, livestock, poultry, fish, and others. However, the increasingly shrinking availability of productive land, fragmented landholding, and the lack of ample capital assets pose serious challenges to coping with the expanded population and offering sufficient nutrition. In this paper, we would like to examine the trajectory of Bangladesh's agricultural and food production system over the past couple of decades and what role it has been playing in offering nutritional security to the people of Bangladesh. We will also explore the contribution international trade plays in providing nutritional security for the people. The specific objectives are: 1. Identify per capita production of different food crops and examine the trend. 2. Identify the variability among different food products and their trend 3. The per capita availability of major nutrition: protein, carbohydrate, fat, etc. 4. Trends of other health and nutrition variables [i.e., infant mortality, life expectancy, live birth weight, women anemic, etc.,] 5. Relate agricultural productivity with nutritional security. 6. Recommend policy options The raw secondary data for this project has already been downloaded from different sites, especially FAOSTAT, the World Bank Databank, and the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics. Some literature searches and downloading literature have also been done. This was the first phase of the project.
Agricultural productivity and nutritional security in Bangladesh - Phase 1
Collect published literature and data, process and analyze data and write a report.
Economic Impact of Muslim Communities in Alberta: Northern Alberta
Scope of the Study: Northern Alberta The primary objective of this study is to explore the Economic and non-Economic contribution of the Muslim community in Northern Alberta. The Muslim community has been around for a long time and has been growing in all aspects – not only in numbers but also in all facets – business, profession, income contribution, social and political processes, etc. It is important to have a comprehensive understanding of the community in the greater society of Alberta. This project is expected to do that. The outcome of the study is to create a comprehensive report – perhaps in two parts – a technical part with details [much more hard facts and figures for academic, official, and professional use] and a promotional part [for the general audience]. This subproject will aid in the main project through the collection of data. A semi-structured or combined structure and non-structure questionnaire will be used for this part. Structured data will provide quantitative figures to develop charts, graphs, and other visual means. It will also provide an opportunity for statistical analysis and numerical comparisons. The non-structured component will allow supporting the quantitative information through further in-depth information. Qualification of the students : Must be familiar with Muslim culture and community as well as the contemporary society of Alberta. High peoples and communication skills are essential. Experience in conducting surveys would be an asset. Location : Northern Alberta, North of Red Deer [Edmonton, Lac La Biche, Fort McMurray, Grand Prairie, etc.].
Economic Impact of Muslim Communities in Alberta: Southern Alberta
The primary objective of this study is to explore the Economic and non-Economic contribution of the Muslim community in Southern Alberta. The Muslim community has been around for a long time and has been growing in all aspects – not only in numbers but also in all facets – business, profession, income contribution, social and political processes, etc. It is important to have a comprehensive understanding of the community in the greater society of Alberta. This project is expected to do that. The outcome of the study is to create a comprehensive report – perhaps in two parts – a technical part with details [much more hard facts and figures for academic, official, and professional use] and a promotional part [for the general audience]. This subproject will aid in the main project through the collection of data. A semi-structured or combined structure and non-structure questionnaire will be used for this part. Structured data will provide quantitative figures to develop charts, graphs, and other visual means. It will also provide an opportunity for statistical analysis and numerical comparisons. The non-structured component will allow supporting the quantitative information through further in-depth in-depth information. Qualification of the students Must be familiar with Muslim culture and community as well as the contemporary society of Alberta. High peoples and communication skills are essential. Experience in conducting surveys would be an asset. Location : Southern Alberta, Red Deer, and south [Red Deer, Calgary, Lethbridge].
Economic Impact of Muslim Communities in Alberta: Northern Alberta
Scope of the Study: Northern Alberta The primary objective of this study is to explore the Economic and non-Economic contribution of the Muslim community in Northern Alberta. The Muslim community has been around for a long time and has been growing in all aspects – not only in numbers but also in all facets – business, profession, income contribution, social and political processes, etc. It is important to have a comprehensive understanding of the community in the greater society of Alberta. This project is expected to do that. The outcome of the study is to create a comprehensive report – perhaps in two parts – a technical part with details [much more hard facts and figures for academic, official, and professional use] and a promotional part [for the general audience]. This subproject will aid in the main project through the collection of data. A semi-structured or combined structure and non-structure questionnaire will be used for this part. Structured data will provide quantitative figures to develop charts, graphs, and other visual means. It will also provide an opportunity for statistical analysis and numerical comparisons. The non-structured component will allow supporting the quantitative information through further in-depth information. Qualification of the students : Must be familiar with Muslim culture and community as well as the contemporary society of Alberta. High peoples and communication skills are essential. Experience in conducting surveys would be an asset. Location : Northern Alberta, North of Red Deer [Edmonton, Lac La Biche, Fort McMurray, Grand Prairie, etc.].
Economic Impact of Muslim Communities in Alberta: Southern Alberta
The primary objective of this study is to explore the Economic and non-Economic contribution of the Muslim community in Southern Alberta. The Muslim community has been around for a long time and has been growing in all aspects – not only in numbers but also in all facets – business, profession, income contribution, social and political processes, etc. It is important to have a comprehensive understanding of the community in the greater society of Alberta. This project is expected to do that. The outcome of the study is to create a comprehensive report – perhaps in two parts – a technical part with details [much more hard facts and figures for academic, official, and professional use] and a promotional part [for the general audience]. This subproject will aid in the main project through the collection of data. A semi-structured or combined structure and non-structure questionnaire will be used for this part. Structured data will provide quantitative figures to develop charts, graphs, and other visual means. It will also provide an opportunity for statistical analysis and numerical comparisons. The non-structured component will allow supporting the quantitative information through further in-depth in-depth information. Qualification of the students Must be familiar with Muslim culture and community as well as the contemporary society of Alberta. High peoples and communication skills are essential. Experience in conducting surveys would be an asset. Location : Southern Alberta, Red Deer, and south [Red Deer, Calgary, Lethbridge].
Dynamics of Energy Demand in Bangladesh
The total primary energy consumption in Bangladesh increased from 0.06 Exajoules in 1972 to 1.64 Exajoules in 2019, a huge expansion. Per capita energy use increased even more, from 0.09 Gigajoules in 1972 to 10.1 Gigajoules in 2019, as the graph shows below. More interestingly, the per capita energy use increased faster than total energy consumption and is increasing at an increasing rate. The sudden decrease in 2020 is due to the reduced economic activity resulting from the Covid 19 pandemic, which does not reflect the long-run trend. With the rapid economic growth in Bangladesh, the energy requirement is expected to keep going up. The challenge of adequate energy commensurate with the requirement of economic growth is a cause of concern for a country like Bangladesh as it is highly dependent on imported energy and is increasingly becoming more dependent on imports. Currently, nearly two-thirds of the county’s energy supply comes from domestic production of natural gas the reserve of which is declining rapidly. Almost a quarter of the energy is met by oil, which is entirely imported. The use of energy is an important indicator for social, economic, and infrastructural development as well as standard of living. The extent of energy consumption often gets related to the economic development [growth of GDP] and lifestyle of a society. Although the relationship between energy consumption and economic growth has not been without dispute, it is well accepted in the scientific community that they are interlinked. It is likely that the demand for energy will continue to increase with the economic development of Bangladesh. During the past couple of years, total energy consumption in Bangladesh increased by over 10 percent a year. Along with the increase in GDP, energy demand has increased, and the mode of energy production and consumption has changed. Mujeri et al (2014) observe in other developing countries that consumption of energy rises quickly when per capita income reaches between the US $1000 and $10000. A quick increase in energy demand in Bangladesh is expected as its per capita income is within this range. This situation is compounded by rising population density and rapid urbanization. The population density in Bangladesh is 1123 people per square km compared to 25 in the world and 36 in the USA. Bangladesh is certainly way behind the amount of energy it needs to offer a lifestyle of a middle-income country. In 2019-20, nearly 92.2 percent of the total population could access electricity. However, the analysis shows that the forecasted and actual energy demand is consistent with little gaps in years from 2005 to 2014. The purpose of this project is to: Forecast the consumption of energy [energy demand] up to the end of the next decade 2035. There are different methods of energy demand forecasting. Our objective is to: Develop a mathematical model of the annual energy consumption of Bangladesh since its independence in 1971 [data available from 1972]. Develop a mathematical model based on data on column C [Energy consumption] and predict the energy consumption of the country up to 2035. Develop a mathematical model for energy consumption [Column C] based on itself and all other variables provided and then predict the energy consumption up to 2035. Our objective is to develop two models as described above. The first one is a univariate model with the assumption that energy consumption is independent and depends on past consumption only. The second model assumes that energy consumption depends on many variables [use all the variables provided – first use GDP and population and then add all the rest of the variables]. Of course, predict the energy consumption of the country up to 2035 based on this model. Compare and contrast the model and its prediction. Prepare a report describing the entire methods and procedures.
Level Up: Energy demand forecasting
Positions available: One Student With the rapid economic growth in Bangladesh, the energy requirement is expected to keep going up. The challenge of adequate energy commensurate with the requirement of economic growth is a cause of concern for a country like Bangladesh as it is highly dependent on imported energy and is increasingly becoming more dependent on imports. Currently, nearly two-thirds of the county’s energy supply comes from domestic production of natural gas, the reserve of which is declining rapidly. Almost a quarter of the energy is met by oil, which is entirely imported. The use of energy is an important indicator for social, economic, and infrastructural development as well as standard of living. The extent of energy consumption often gets related to the economic development [growth of GDP] and lifestyle of a society. Although the relationship between energy consumption and economic growth has not been without dispute, it is well accepted in the scientific community that they are interlinked. It is likely that the demand for energy will continue to increase with the economic development of Bangladesh. During the past couple of years, total energy consumption in Bangladesh increased by over 10 percent a year. Our objective is to develop at least two forecasting models. The first one is a univariate model with the assumption that energy consumption is independent· The other models will take into consideration of other variables. We expect the model to forecast up to 2035 based on annual data from 1972 to 2019 or 2020. The student is to develop mathematical or statistical models. Appropriate data will be provided. Qualifications of Student Research Assistant – student must have a background in data modeling and/or statistics [especially, time-series and another statistical and mathematical background. A sufficient understanding of forecasting techniques will be of advantage.
Patterns of Retail Gasoline Price in Canada
Retail gasoline price in Canada varies over time and location. There are efforts to find out reasons and patterns of such variability in different locations. However, the variability from one day to the next in a week has not been explored. Plus, how much of such variability is caused by the change in wholesale price and crude oil price and how much of those changes are principally demand-driven is an area to be explored. Specifically, · Is there a variation of prices from one day to the next in a week, i.e., from Monday to Tuesday, from Tuesday to Wednesday, from Wednesday to Thursday, from Thursday to Friday? · If there is such a variation, hoy much? Is there a difference between one pair of days than another pair of days? What day has the highest price and what day has the lowest price? · Are there any locational differences of such price variations? Are there any differences among provinces or cities within province? · How much of this price variation is due to changes in whole-sale price and crude oil price? · Is there any profit motive to exploit higher consumer demand? How much of this is demand-driven? Are there any variations is retail gasoline sale from one day to the next within a week?
Level UP: Contributions of Muslims to local and provincial economy
Positions available: 3 students Muslim population in Canada is growing at an increasing rate, and Pew Research Center forecasts Canada’s Muslim population to exceed over 2.5 million by 2030. Alberta is getting relatively higher proportion of such population because of its expanding economy. Many Muslims work high-skill and high-education professions, i.e., medicine, dentistry, engineering, etc. It is important to understand the nature of jobs Muslims do and the economic contributions they make for appropriate policy formulations. Through this project, we plan to document the contribution of Muslim population of Edmonton and Alberta to society, economy, science, technology, and others. We expect the project will have impact in many areas. On the business side, this will be of use to businesses, especially for businesses catering to Muslims, i.e., halal restaurants, groceries, butcher-shops, slaughterhouse, and farms; banks, credit unions, mortgage-brokers for lending money to Muslims; tourism industry, private parks and recreation facilities, etc. It will also be useful to governments of all three levels – municipal, provincial, and federal for appropriate regulatory measures and policy formulations. Methods: This project extensively involves collecting data – primary and secondary data, and relevant literature. A set of questions will be developed for primary data and an inventory will be created for gathering secondary data. This will require simultaneous and continuous involvement. Three students will be working independently or in sequence. Primary data gathering – 60 hours Primary data tabulating and recording – 20 Secondary data gathering – 40 hours Secondary data tabulating, manipulating & descriptive analysis – 40 hours Searching literature and preparing bibliography – 35 Preparing a short review – 45 hours Qualifications of Student Research Assistants – preferably an advanced senior student in Economics or Statistics with sufficient understanding of (1) primary data collection, (2) data downloading from internet sites, (3) data conversion, manipulation, and processing in Excel, (4) proficient in library search and development of a review paper. Good interpersonal and writing skills are essential.
Level Up: Production, consumption, export, and policy of Canadian natural gas
Positions Available: 3 students The purpose of this study is to examine the potential for Canadian natural gas production, consumption, and export. Canada has the lowest natural gas price in the world. Whereas, so far, it is exporting natural gas only to the US through pipelines. Although an LNG plant is now under construction, there is no certainty on how much natural gas Canada will be able to produce and export. The specific question to be asked are: The objectives of this project are to: (1) identify the reasons for Canada's inability to enter the world natural gas market, (2) discover competitive advantage for Canadian natural gas export to different parts of the world, (3) examine the potential for Canadian natural gas export under different scenarios, and (4) recommend policy frameworks for maximum return from Canadian natural gas sector. Methods: This project is to be executed using the secondary data. At the first stage, this project will collect secondary data and relevant literature. The source of secondary data are the websites of Natural Resource Canada, Statistics Canada, British Petroleum, International Energy Association, International Gas Union, International Energy Agency, Energy Information Agency (USA). Data reported in these sources are not in the same form or format, neither all are in spreadsheets. This requires substantial effort to convert to a common spreadsheet software [we plan to compile all in MS-Excel]. In addition, they are not in the same units nor are in the same variables nor have the same characteristics. These data will need to be transformed, corroborated, and synthesized to create a set of consistent workable data for analytical purposes. The other major component is to review literature, prepare a bibliography, write a review on methods, procedures, and results. We expect three students to work individually or in sequence. Data gathering – 40 hours Data manipulation [synchronizing] – 40 hours Literature search – 30 hours Preparing an annotated bibliography – 50 hours Computing simple statistics and graphs – 20 hours Writing review – 60 hours Qualifications of Student Research Assistant – preferably an advanced senior student in Economics or Statistics with sufficient understanding of (1) data downloading from internet sites, (2) data conversion, manipulation, and processing in Excel, (3) collection of relevant literature, development of annotated bibliography, and (4) writing review of methods, procedures, and results.
Level Up: Dynamics of Agricultural Productivity
Positions available: One Student Dynamics of Agricultural Productivity, Economic Growth and Nutrition Security in Bangladesh The purpose of this study is to examine the growth of agricultural productivity, economy, and nutrition situation in Bangladesh with the existing policy and political situations. Then, with the disintegration of the agricultural sector into crops, livestock, fisheries, and then further disintegration of the crop sector into different crops for nutrition purposes, this stud is expected to related food production with economy and nutrition. The specific questions to be asked are: · How the agricultural productivity, in general, and specific sectors and crops performed in the last half a century? · Does agricultural production relate to economic growth? · Do acreage, production and yield of different crops grow in the same rate? · Have the existing policies been biased toward certain crops or certain agricultural sector? · What are the relationships between the growth of agricultural production and nutrition security in Bangladesh? · What role international trade payed in improving food security in Bangladesh? · Are there any room for further improvement food security through policy prescription and implementation? · What policies need to be improved, modified, and incorporated in improving food and nutrition security in Bangladesh? Methods: This project is to be executed using the secondary data. At the first stage, this project will collect secondary data and relevant literature. The source of secondary data are the websites of the World Bank, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the United Nations Population, the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI), the Open Street Map (OSM), the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS), the Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWSNET), and the Sustainable World. Time-series data on agriculture, economy, food, and nutrition are to be downloaded from these sites. Data from different will have different formats, frequencies, depths, and units. These data will need to be transformed into one easily manipulatable format [preferably Excel] so that the data can be used in analysis. While preparing data, we also need to prepare a bibliography of related literature, which will allow to understand an overall idea on what has been done in examining the food and nutrition and security of Bangladesh in relation to agricultural and food production. This will also allow us to examine literature on policy formulation, implementation, and evaluations. The student will download data from different websites, prepare then for analysis and conduct simple statistical analyses. Possible time commitment from the student are (hours): Data gathering – 15 hours Data manipulation [synchronizing] – 15 Literature search – 10 Preparing an annotated bibliography – 20 Computing simple statistics and graphs – 20 Qualifications of Student Research Assistant – preferably an advanced senior student in Economics or Statistics with sufficient understanding of (1) data downloading from internet sites, (2) data conversion, manipulation, and processing in Excel, (3) development of graphs, tables and other visual tools for incorporating into scientific reports, and (4) simple statistical analysis.